AoS Seraphon nerfs

sigh… So. Many. Freaking. Pdfs…..

As for that question itself, well that's just kind of awefull. Not to mention it just begs the question, why? What in the world do they hope to achieve with this?

On another note; it says the kills done by the endless spells don't count towards battleshock. Why is that and isn't that inconsistent with literally every other method of slaying models?

 

Just F.A.Q. morathi then, not endless spells, GW has the annoying tendency of nerfing everything when one specific situation leads to abuse…

Also, feels like it's another model similar to nagash that just has an ability that's so much more powerfull than the norm that by definition anything that is balanced for the norm is gonna be stupidly OP on her without additional restrictions. Same like nagash

I'm really curious as to what the purpose is supposed to be of it though. Endless spells don't seem powerfull enough that they can cause signifcantly more of a route than other attacks would.

 

the only thing I can think of is that they're afraid that when you hit multiple things it'l be too powerfull. But really if you manage to hit 3-4 units with your purple sun it'l be devestating regardless, not suffering from battleshock isn't going to massivly help you then.

plus, that's really just another reason to stop having magic do mortal wound and give it its own damage and defensive mechanic so it can still be armor piercing without it immeadiatly wiping out everything it touches when you give it more potential than D3.

 

meh, it makes for a rather expensive glorified slann, would be acceptable if he wasn't nearly double the cost.

It's a shame that you can't take relics on him (yet another rule that feels like it's only there to prevent certain specific cases of abuse, but ends up hitting quite a lot of heroes who'd still be perfectly balanced with relics…). Otherwise I'd try taking a defensive relic and a defensive spell from one of the realms. And send him to go slaughter some stuff in melee. At 2d6/3+/3+/-1/1 he's a fairly decent threat in melee, his dead for unnumerable ages will help keep him alive, throw on a phantasmal guardian and mystic shield and he should be able to take on most enemies just make sure you don't send him to fight a bloodthirster or something in melee. and whatever spell slots he has left he can use for some nukes or generating summoning points. It solves his range issues at least. Plus this way his melee attacks actually do something. Seriously why does a slann, even if it is kroak, have a decent melee profile, their entire stick involves staying away from the front-lines as much as possible.

 

My problem is that he's still 450ish points. He's not a melee monster but needs to be close to the enemy. So you'll automatically be in dispel range. And in danger to get caught in close combat. As the difficulty of celestial deliverance increased, in addition to the 2+ for less damage, it's nowhere near sure to get it cast, and get something killed reliably. For 450 points.....and bwv. And astrolith. He'll have a hard time against others in his points level.
Of course it's difficult to compare him in a vacuum with other army's big game, but I think he got only a role as sidekick. Sure he was too good recently, but that's just too much in the wrong direction. As others already have pointed out, they could have balanced him by taking his range, or reducing his damage. The only thing I actually can see is him generating cps and summoning points.
Well, just my 2 cents.

 

One use for the oodles of command points is to use the Scar-Vet on Carnos command ability a bunch on a unit of Saurus Knights so any sixes to hit will generate X extra attacks to hopefully get you more mortals, or at least force more saves. Could be kinda nice.

 

Yeah I agree he has a decent spot in a Blood claw list. Points may be debatable since he still has Curse of Fates to alter Space Time rolls. We really need an overhaul on making a Skink or Saurus your General since Slann is essential an auto choice now. I get that they probably put the General clause in to prevent multiple Slann powering out summons, and make you guard the slann or risk losing all those points. However its now made Saurus and Skink Generals pointless due to weak command bonuses and losing access to summoning. Even at equivalent points now, the Slann massively outclasses the Carno Old-blood.

 

they could've just said "only 1 slann can sacrifice his spells".

Or they could've not put the entire mechanic on 1 model thus all but ensuring having multiple of that model would be problematic...

 

Kroak nerf is a huge hit. Probably won't be viable any more in competitive play unless people start using the Realm of Battle rules and every wizard learns 7 new spells each game.
Astrolith Bearer is a big hit. Having to keep wizards near the banner limits your positioning options.
Starseer change is very interesting, but I'm not sure he is worth 200 points. You can generate 5 extra command points in a game, but the possibility of giving your enemy command points is a big risk. You could just buy 4 command points and have them immediately when the game start. If you need a wizard then you could bring a Starpriest and buy 2 guaranteed command points for 180.
Ripperdactyls are... about the same? Before 2.0 they could generate 2 hits per attack, now they generate 1-3 hits per attack. The average is a bit higher, and the max damage is higher, but now they can swing low.
Engine of the Gods summoning terradons that could immediately move and drop rocks was a dumb mechanic and I'm glad it was nerfed. Hopefully this makes stacking EOTG significantly worse because I hate the idea of people bringing 4x EOTG lists.

A 260pt wizard with no spell lore, only 7 wounds, that sacrifices his 3 spells to summon 60pt worth of skinks every turn is not very useful. Seraphon summoning has a high opportunity cost and vulnerable to being rushed down.
This could just be my experience but competitive games are often determined in the first 2-3 rounds and don't often make it to round 5, so the value of summoning usually doesn't factor into tournament play.

Slann make very strong generals but they are limited by the fact that we don't have a spell lore. Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt are both much worse than they were before, and you can only cast one endless spell per wizard per turn. I think the main uses of a Slann are to take Vast Intellect, to boost the EOTG, to fill out battalions, 3 unbinds from anywhere, and give you the option to pivot your gameplay to a summoning attrition style.

 

It creates issues when you want split your forces and have a wizad on both forces. As long as you only have 1 wizard you're not going to notice it though. But for multiple wizards it's a rather massive nerf.

to be honest that's kind of the only hope Kroak has left. With his base stats and some of the better defensive spells it might prop him up enough to be able to go wreck some face in melee alongside throwing some comets and celesstial deliverance around for fire-support. He's not going to take on say a bloodthirster, but it doesn't seem like a terrible idea at least. Plus, at least it'd make for an increadibly versatile model. Spells for fire-support, dead for innumerable ages for survivability and a halfway decent melee profile for ripping apart medium-tier troops.